An attempt to help explain the mysteries and magic that are part and parcel of 'probation'.

Tuesday, 1 August 2017

Escape Opportunity

For one lucky person, here's the perfect way to escape the nightmare and omnishambles that is TR and head south, for a couple of years at least. Thanks to the reader for spotting the following advert in the Guardian. Don't all rush at once:- ST HELENA GOVERNMENT

Could you help to develop systems for general offender management, including working with domestic abuse perpetrators and sex offenders?

A sub-tropical island of spectacular and beautiful landscapes in the South Atlantic with a warm and friendly population of 4,500, St Helena is a self-governing overseas territory of the UK, poised for future transformation with scheduled, commercial air access.

The St Helena Offender Management Service includes provision of MAPPA, Court cover, PSRs, Probation Orders, Community Service, Post-Release Licences, Risk Assessments, Sentence Planning and preventive work with partner agencies. You will be one of two UK trained Probation Officers with an Offender Manager DC and a Trainee DC. The team is managed by a DS and a senior Police DCI, supported by a range of local partnership agencies and individuals. You will need to train and develop staff in the Police Service and other partnership agencies to offer services comparable to the UK.

You will take the lead in delivering Offender Management and Probation Services to offenders primarily in the community on Probation Orders and Community Service Orders but will also work with those in custody and under MAPPA arrangements. In co-operation with other staff and agencies you will manage a caseload of offenders and your priority will be to identify domestic abuse perpetrators who pose the most risk to the community and working with offenders to address their behaviour through formal and informal interventions.

As you support the adult and children’s Safeguarding Boards in the delivery of key messages and education for those preventative initiatives identified, you will work with partner agencies to deliver interventions directed at Juveniles to prevent and reduce offending behaviour.

As fully qualified ARMS trained probation officer you will have recently managed offenders serving Custodial and Community Sentences. With specific experience of managing domestic abuse perpetrators and sex offenders and in delivering interventions to offenders in order to reduce risk and manage safe community integration, you will be familiar with MAPPA, MARAC and public protection arrangements and have a broad knowledge of the full range of probation interventions available. Able to train and mentor staff with specific experience in this area, you will work collaboratively and innovatively delivering proactive preventative work with a positive and flexible approach in this challenging environment, adapting current UK processes and creating new processes to fit St Helena’s needs

We offer an extensive benefits package with 30 days leave pa, fare paid travel, freight and storage allowances. An application form can be found at our website via the button below, where further information can also be found, or you may contact Kedell Worboys on 0203 818 7610. This is where applications must be sent and received by 31 August 2017. Interviews will be held in London.

The Foreign Office knew the British territory of St Helena “couldn’t cope” with child abuse as long ago as 2002 but failed to order an independent inquiry for 12 years, a retired senior civil servant has claimed.

Ivy Ellick, a former head of public health and social services on the island, said she delivered the warning in a meeting with the British government. At least 20 children were sexually abused on the South Atlantic island, which has a population of only 4,500, during the years between the warning and the inquiry.

Establishment paedophiles, including a social work manager who advised on child protection and a deputy manager of a sheltered accommodation complex, were not brought to justice. Both men were finally sentenced in the past two years.

During this period, the Foreign Office repeatedly assured the United Nations that there was “no evidence” of sexual exploitation of children on the island, where seven out of 11 prisoners are child sex offenders. A new prison is being built that could accommodate up to one in 50 of the island’s men.

The British government launched the inquiry, headed by Sasha Wass, the QC who prosecuted Rolf Harris, last year after whistleblowers detailed abuse and an alleged cover-up by the island’s government and the Foreign Office.

******The British social workers, Claire Gannon and Martin Warsama, who worked on the island in 2013 and triggered the Wass inquiry, are now suing the Foreign Office claiming they lost their jobs because of their whistleblowing.

At the same time, they are being investigated over alleged perjury in an adoption case on Ascension island and could eventually be extradited back to St Helena to be tried by the very criminal justice system they complained about.

“Which whistleblower would stand up if it meant removal from their place of work or even the UK?” said Lawrence Davies, director of Equal Justice Solicitors, who is representing them. “The spectre of extradition is a horrible thing for these British whistleblowers to have to live with.”

Twenty-seven men are on the island’s recently introduced sex offenders’ register out of a total male population of around 2,000, more than six times the figure per head in England and Wales.

It's My Blog

Welcome to the wonderful world of probation! These are the personal thoughts of an ordinary probation officer struggling to come to terms with constant change, whilst trying to do a useful job for society. Sadly, change is so often obviously not progress. I am fully aware that my views do not represent official policy of government, my Service or possibly anyone else - but hey - it's my blog!

ATV 1962 Windsor Davies

About Me

A grumpy, disillusioned, CQSW trained, generic, main grade probation officer based in a small English town. All my contemporaries have either left, retired or been promoted. Newer colleagues simply don't understand the journey I've been on from advise, assist and befriend. (If there is anyone of similar name in the NAPO handbook, it's not me).